


Berserker - Bad Ending (?)

by Matsu_Megurine



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/strange fake
Genre: Apocrypha and fgo got me wondering so much about Berserker's wish, Character Study, Fate-like feels, It was supposed to be all about Jack, So you can go ahead and imagine who else survived or not, a possible ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matsu_Megurine/pseuds/Matsu_Megurine
Summary: It's been almost a decade after the Fifth Holy Grail War met it's end, and a new War started, this time in the opposite side of the globe: United States of America.But that's not a story about how it happened.It is just one possible ending, in between all these mixed up realities. Or perhaps, just like this same War, it is also fake.But the point is: What if Flat Escardos, alongside the Fake Berserker, were victorious?





	Berserker - Bad Ending (?)

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Berserker - Bad Ending(?)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/348294) by Me (on Spirit Fanfiction). 



> Thank you very much for reading this!  
> Strange Fake is oddly one of my favorites Fate stories (the odd part is because probably no one else in my country has ever read it), so I really had to write something about it *-*  
> I hope you like it!

Flat stared at his surrounds, at the devastation in which the final battle resulted.

There were still some Servants alive, or at least he hadn’t known of their defeat. But there had been deaths. Many deaths. His eyes were still blankly gazing the remains of other Masters’ corpses in between the wreckage.

The last few days had slapped Flat in the face, he whom had arrived in America with the idea that it would be possible to finish that Fake Grail War without killing a single person. Indeed, he hadn’t kill anyone himself. But his Servant did. And decisions made by Flat had been culminating to that finale.

He was responsible for that. Such as the girl who only wished to retain her homeland’s dignity. Such as the officers who, until barely months ago, didn’t have a clue about magecraft. Such as the Death Apostle, such as a man who only sought for power, such as Prelati...

“Master”, he heard Jack’s voice, that is, a voice from Jack, behind him, barely startling him.

He turned in his heels.

That was the Holy Grail.

Not Fuyuki’s Holy Grail. A “fake one”, which had requested all that insanity, that level of chaos and sacrifices, in order to become “real”. However, even as the replica that it was, it had the power of a legitimate Holy Grail.

It was only in order to see it that Flat came here. He wanted to see what was this thing which mages from all around the world, generation after generation, fought, sacrificed themselves and gambled their everything for. Just to know it existed, to witness it’s power, to see it with his own eyes... That was why he came.

“Unaccountable”, he could almost hear Lord El-Melloi II’s voice scolding him. “It is, however, a wish worthy of a student of the Clock Tower.”

Flat gulped and nodded.

“Go ahead, Jack”, he said, surprised with the maturity that transposed his tone. “You have a wish to grant, don’t you?”

Jack stared at him, seemingly uncertain, than went back to stare the Grail.

“I do”, the Servant agreed. “But it is you who are the winning Master.”

“N-No! I d-don’t... I don’t have a wish of my own... actually.” He stepped forward. “I told you, didn’t I? That you could have the sacred chalice when we had won? To find out your identity...”

Jack went silent.

Jack the Ripper.

Someone whose true identity the world had yet to find out. The one in front of Flat Escardos was a manifestation of that idea, materialized by the power of the Throne of Heros, not the actual person behind the murders.

“If I could have one wish”, Jack had told him, in what seemed to be a really distant first day of the War, “it’d be to know who I am.”

To know who was the person he was drawn after. No longer be a faceless ghost with no personality. Jack longed to be a real person! It didn’t matter if it turned out to be a psycho, a madman or a doomed one... They wanted to be a complete human being, with personality traits of their own, with their actual memories, with a real soul... That’s what the Fake Berserker wished to with all their might.

Leaving their Master behind, Jack stepped forward to the Grail. And reached out. Flat kept staring them, unable to move his gaze. If there was a wish of his own, it was that which was happening right now. He was watching a genuine wish coming true by the power of the Grail.

Oh, and there’s also that...

And the one who was getting their wished set true was someone he could call a friend. If it wasn’t to much insolence, he’d say that alsoa had been a wish of his.

No, actually, Flat would say it out loud even though it was boldness.

The power of the Holy Grail completely flew through Berserker, enveloping them in mana, light and Magic. That was not the magecraft they had ways to learn, nor the lost witchcraft, nor spellcasting. That was the power of true magic.

Berserker’s body began to change again. But Flat knew that would be the last time. They would not be able to shape-shifting ever again, because they were giving up their “every Jack the Ripper legend” personification skill in favor of being “someone”. They would also cease to being a Berserker, though Flat didn’t know which, if any, Class they would assume.

Their wish came true. And Flat Escardos stared at the person in front of him.

It was a child. Apparently, a little skinny girl, with scars on her face and bandages on her hands. The big round eyes of the kid looked all around her, not landing over Flat for more than na instant. Those eyes looked as though lost.

“So this girl...” Flat said, recognizing the figure he had already accidentally saw in between Berserker’s transformations.

She was gazing at everything, as though in search for something, overtaken by emotions and the feeling of looking at the world being who she was. Or so was Flat’s understanding of the situation.

“Jack... Yo—”

“Our mother...” The kid mumbled.

Flat realized she held tears in her eyes. And, more than tears, she held despair. She didn’t know where to look at. Because that which she want to see could not be seen.

“Your... Mother?”

She suddenly turned around and looked at him.

“M-Master...?” She mumbled, as though having a hard time to remember who exactly he was. “They took us out of our mother...! Take us back! Take us back to mother!!!"

He stumbled behind. Jack usually did not show up emotions that way. But that was obvious. The one he knew, the Berserker who answered by “Jack the Ripper” had nothing to do with this person. They had no emotions to call their own.

A wry smile showed up on her face.

“...I see... Then... We were only looking for mommy...” She stood up. “...Yeah, it makes sense...”

“Jack...” Flat, having fallen on the ground, gazed up at her. He tried to be racional. “Who are you?”

She lift her eyes to the sky. Then moved her gaze from one side to another. Then giggled, though with an unhappy expression.

“We are”, she opened her mouth, seemingly suddenly sure of that, “Jack the Ripper.”

Flat stared at her for a few seconds, as she calmly walked, in a rather pitiful way. Then his face changed,  
“You didn’t have an identity from the very beginning...”

“Hey, Master... Let’s go find mommy.” She cut him middlesentence. She seemed to be in a demi-madness state of mind, unable to keep path with her thoughts. “If we go back to mommy, it’ll all be okay—”

“...”

“Let’s go!” She seemed to get more and more frustrated every second they stood there. “Come on, come on, come on! We...! We gotta find mommy! Or we could... Maybe we could find mommy a substitute... Yeah, that would also work... Maybe...”

There was a knife on her hand, absurdly alike to the catalyst Flat had used. Except that one was real. It was the dangerous tool of a serial killer.

“Jack... I don’t understand... If you were no one... How is it possible...?”

“We’re gonna find mommy!!” She cried. “Then everything is gonna be fine!”

“Jack!”

“Oh my, what a scene, that won’t work...” Said a new voice.

In na instant, Jack had her body tightly wrapped by a sash. She fell on the ground.

Flat stared at the voice’s owner.

A man... No, a Servant.

Before Jack could use another word or Flat could have any reaction, he beheaded the girl.

Jack wide-eyed for a moment, fixed her gaze on Flat, then her body started to disappear in particles of magic energy. It was quick.

“You—”

“It had no way, dude!” He shrugged. “She was already lost! Y’know, I don’t usually work with these ‘redemption’ stuff... And, the way it’s going, I’m not so aroused about writing another epic bloody tale. Yeah, it’s been way enough blood...”

“You are...” Flat looked at him. “You are the Caster. The Fake Caster.”

“Jackpot!” He shouted back. Then he sighed. “Duuude, even with the Rule Breaker it was really tiring to get here. I mean, I felt it when bro passed, right, but to get here and face this? Such a waste...”

The Caster put away his own odd knife. Flat stood up.

He felt sad about Jack. This was not what he was expecting. However... They did realized their wish, didn’t they? The boy wondered if Jack had felt any feeling of accomplishment for discovering who they were... Even if the answer was itself so splintered.

“Yo, boy, my bad. I get it if you want to kill me, for he was your Servant and stuff... No, should I say ‘she’? ‘Them’? Oh, man, this is confusing.” He snickered, then looked at Flat in the eyes apologetically. “But, y’know, I won’t last longer around here myself, so... Don’t waste your time.”

Flat shook his head.

“I’m not mad”, he answered sincerely. “Jack... got what they wished for. They told me that, had he not been summoned as Berserker, they could easily went rampage and randomly killed people, so that’s good. No one else had to die.”

Caster looked surprise with his answer. He blinked. Then laughed.

“You’re a weirdo, boy, did you know that?” He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. “Well... it was nice to get to know this era... Who knows, maybe I’m lucky and someone will summon me again in such na interesting time for the humanity. Man... I wish I have written about it...”

At that, his body too began to vanish in between the golden particles. Caster was gone. Flat was alone in the desolate battlefield. He took a deep breathe. Then looked up to the sky.

A blue sky. Just a few clouds. Not a sign of those weird mystical threads the Rider had sent over the city. Good.

Then he remembered something.

He ran until he found a store. He had to make a call.

Flat knew Lord El-Melloi II was going to reprimand him. He knew when he got back to England he’d have some punishment, but actually he couldn’t wait to be home. He had so much to tell the professor.

Midway there, he realized a blonde-haired-person was watching him. Yeah, they were both surprised for each other’s surveillance, since they had technically been mortal enemies untilnonly a few minutes ago. It was good to know more people had survived, even though he didn’t know what would happen to them now that the curious circumstances of the Grail War had finished.

* * *

“So, did you realize your wish above all things?” Lord El-Melloi II asked him, slightly moving the smoke away from his mouth and glancing at his student. “If you survived until the very end, you must have been face to face to the Grail. Even more, due to your phone call after that...”

Flat laughed and lifted his hand to his neck.

“Oh, I didn’t have a wish to make.”

“You what...?!”

“I let my Servant get the Grail!”

He almost wished the professor would scold him again, but the man went silent and quit looking at him.  
“I see. Then I guess it was one he’ll of a wish...”

Flat shrugged innocently.

“I don’t know it was something like a happy ending.” He too stared afar. “But I think... im glad i got to see the end beside them.”

Lord El-Melloi II snickered.

No Holy Grail War ended in what someone could call a “happy ending”. It wasn’t how it to worked, even if the person could actually get to touch the Grail or even having their wish come true. However...

“it was worthy... Huh?” He mumbled. 

Flat gazed back at him, his youthful eyes widening up. Lord El-Melloi II was not looking at him. Then Flat nodded.

Yes...

Somehow, he had no regrets.


End file.
